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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24284155">A Small Request</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Swindlefingers/pseuds/Swindlefingers'>Swindlefingers</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dragon Age: Inquisition</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Rite of Tranquility, Templars (Dragon Age), Tevinters, Tranquil Mages, Venatori</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-03 01:42:03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>638</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24284155</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Swindlefingers/pseuds/Swindlefingers</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Raleigh Samson is set on a dark task, but who better to do it than someone with nothing left to lose and only this to give?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Villain of My Own Story Exchange 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Small Request</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/smaragdbird/gifts">smaragdbird</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Bare feet are quieter. Samson slips off his boots and socks and leaves them under a bush nearby the mage tower. He prays they’re still here when he’s done. He only has the one pair. Breaking rocks with no boots on sounds like a fool’s errand, same as trying to explain how he lost them to the quartermaster as he begs for a new pair.</p>
<p>The old templar’s been working within Skyhold’s stone walls for nigh on half a year, and since the red hasn’t taken him, hard labor in the spring sun suffices as his punishment. He knows his ways around the halls and galleys well enough to slip through a patrol.</p>
<p>It’s easy enough. Skyhold sleeps soundly. A sparse night watch walks the ramparts and trickles through the courtyards. The stars are gone. Even the moon hides her face, shielding herself from witnessing what he’s been tasked with this night.</p>
<p>A bloody task. A righteous task. A task suited for a better man. </p>
<p>But better men don’t get their hands dirty.</p>
<p>Samson steals himself with a breath and silently crosses the threshold into Skyhold’s mage tower. The door left unlocked by the very people who begged his help. Over and over. Until he relented.</p>
<p>The tower is dark, the first floor is uninhabited. He doesn’t feel any magic thrumming at the base of his skull. Dormitories fill the second and third floors, and he’d find no trouble there. Not with the rightfully indignant souls who put him to this task.</p>
<p>Samson mounts the first step. Stone. No chance of creaking wood giving him away. No need for this to be messier than it needs be.</p>
<p>Bits and pieces of the letter the Redcliffe mages shared with him, flit in front of his eyes within the darkness. He takes each step as quickly as his rotted old bones will let him.</p>
<p>
  <em> We must scour the countryside to find more of the shards… </em>
</p>
<p>Another step and another.</p>
<p>
  <em> We need the oculara… </em>
</p>
<p>Samson takes the steps more quickly, hoping to outrun the rest of the damned letter.</p>
<p>
  <em> There must be more Tranquil in the area — the rebels abandoned most of them… </em>
</p>
<p>Up through the second and third floor, past the slumbering mages safe in Skyhold. He pauses in the doorway of the last dormitory, catching his breath. His lungs burn. Samson watches them sleep. Their serene faces lay in stark contrast to the anguish painted on their faces as they relived the horrors all outlined in the venatori letter on oculara that they handed to him.</p>
<p>
  <em> Remember, the skull will only attune properly if the Tranquil…  </em>
</p>
<p>Samson turns and continues his way up the stone staircase to the fourth floor.</p>
<p>
  <em> Is in close proximity to one of the shards when the demon is forced to possess him…</em>
</p>
<p>He finishes his climb and slips through the open door at the top of the stairs.</p>
<p>A wretched man slumps in his chair, crookedly bent over a cluttered desk. At the sound of Samson’s footsteps, he jerks upright and spins around. His eyes are hollow with sleeplessness and grief, his face is covered in weeks of hair. The man holds up a few fingers alight with dull magefire, “W-w-who goes there?”</p>
<p>Samson enters the halo of blue light cast along the cobbled floor, his hands curled into fists.</p>
<p>“I’ve a message for ye, Magister Alexius. From the mages of Redcliffe.”</p>
<p>He reaches deep within the blighted part of himself and pulls from it the raw power to banish all magic from the small room. A twinge of remorse plucks at his guts, but he buries it instantly when the final line of the letter unravels before him.</p>
<p>
  <em> The blow must be delivered immediately… </em>
</p>
<p>Gereon Alexius gasps an impotent “no,” before his magefire sputters out and they are both left in inky darkness.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>
  <a href="https://dragonage.fandom.com/wiki/Codex_entry:_Oculara">Codex Entry: Oculara</a>
</p></blockquote></div></div>
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